In this issue:

This week, the Green Tribunal, , a national entity handling adjudication and enforcement of environmental, forest and conservation related cases, ruled that all Yamuna floodplain encroachments must be demolished in New Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The ruling stipulated that the Vice Chairmen,Commissioners, Secretaries of the concerned Department and Deputy Commissioner of Police of encroachment areas were not only responsible for demolishing encroachments, but also for producing plans and maps for public constructions on the Yamuna banks, including whether or not the constructions had received No Objection Certificate (NOC) clearance allowing them to build legally.

The previous week, Jagannath Poddar, along with the Braj Vrindavan Heritage Alliance (BVHA), sent a petition to the Green Tribunal following their meeting with case petitioner Akash Vashishtha see Vrindavan Toda article about the meeting here). The petition asked the Green Tribunal to “direct agencies to raize all illegal structures built on the flood plains (of the Yamuna) and dump the debris accumulated off the river flood zone area.” It also asks that First Information Reports (FIRs) be filed against all farmhouses, plot owners, real estate agents and commercial plot owners currently encroaching upon the river banks.

This ruling could help in accomplishing the demolition of pillars left in Yamuna when a ruling by the Allahabad High court halted construction of a half-moon bridge in the Yamuna at Keshi Ghat in Vrindavan. The gathering of evidence for this case and elated activism was the impetus for groups like the BVHA and Save Yamuna to Save Vrindavan, as well as Vrindavan Today. Construction of the bridge at Keshi ghat is the featured image in the India Today and Daily Mail articles about the Green Tribunal’s ruling.

The Union Water Resources Minister facilitated the fifth meeting for the Upper Yamuna River Basin, which was attended by Chief Ministers from Delhi, Haryana and Irrigation Ministers from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. At the meeting, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit commended the Union Water Minister’s work to expedite the poorly planned Lakhwar Dam Project (see below) to provide more water to the National Capital Region.

Save Yamuna to Save Vrindavan has created an online petition addressed to the Prime Minister of India and other key officials involved with the Lakhwar Dam project to voice concern about the project. The online petition is in support of the petition already addressed to these politicians by eminent lawyers, activists, groups and individuals last week. To read the petition, which offers reliable evidence as to why the Lakhwar Dam Project should not move forward, and to sign the petition, please use the following link:

The petition garnered 200 signatures in its first week, but this is not nearly enough to register on politicians’ radars. The Lakhwar Dam Project has no local level planning, no alternative plans and no impact assessment. The Lakhwar Dam project includes two dams and one barrage, starting just 120 km from Yamuna’s source at Yamunotri, and would submerge an estimated 868 hectares of forest and 50 villages.

A handful of photographs showing the foam created on top of the Yamuna from industrial pollution at Delhi by photographer Daniel Berehulak made for numerous posts of the photos with brief comments about the condition of the river. A blogger named Dani also posted her own pics and commentary.

Industrial pollution on the Yamuna at Delhi: Photo by Daniel Berehulak

A new video shows Omnipresenttech‘s “Ro-Boat” technology, which involves the use of a remote controlled motorized boat to clean and filter wate The boats are powered by solar panels and navigated via GPS, could sense & collect plastic & other debris while also filtering water. The makers claim the Ro-Boats (how many and at what cost?) could clean large stretches of the Ganga (like how a large?) in less than a year. Plans are set to launch the device at the Nasik Kumbh Mela in 2015. The machine is reminiscent of the Water Wheel Aerator (see video here) put to use by Braj Dham Seva in the Yamuna at the Vrindavan Kumbh Mela in 2010.

Cited articles:http://www.omnipresenttech.com/home/our-robots

Radhe Radhe!

Every week, Vrindavan Today presents a summary of articles and news about issues affecting the Yamuna River from around the web and elsewhere. If you have Yamuna-related news that you would like to see published here, please email Katie Jo Walter at katie.walter@fulbrightmail.org. To stay up to date with the latest Braj Vrindavan devotion and development news, please follow the Vrindavan Today RSS feed and bookmark our site, which offers articles in both English and Hindi: www.vrindavantoday.org. Also, please join our Facebook news and discussion group for Yamuna issues at:www.facebook.com/groups/saveyamunasavevrinadavan The group currently has close to 4800 members. We would love to have you help us reach the 5000 mark!